Teen Drug Use; Educate, not incarcerate

Fellow drug policy activist Gil down in South AL had a magnificent LTE published in the BHAM News on Jan.2 that I missed. Here it is.


Teen drug use: Education, not incarceration

The recent article on teen drug use in Alabama highlights the failure of our drug policy to reduce teen drug use. As our experience with tobacco has shown, education works better than putting people in jail.

The News interviewed Carissa Anthony, who blames medical marijuana, saying "the legalization of marijuana in some states for medical use may be breaking down psychological barriers and making marijuana appear less harmful than it is."

How does Anthony explain the lower rate of teen use in these states? Their laws are making our kids more likely to use marijuana while at the same time making their kids less likely. This is a silly assertion.

Overall use and teen use are lower in countries that have legalized (The Netherlands) or fully decriminalized marijuana (Portugal, Spain) than in the United States.

How harmful does Anthony think marijuana is? The Drug Enforcement Administration's own administrative law judge concluded marijuana is "one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man" and is "safer than many of the foods we commonly eat."

To reduce teen use and overall use, we must educate not incarcerate.

Gil Joiner
Gulf Shores

How's that drug war working out for y'all?

According to a report in today's Birmingham News Alabama teens use drugs at a rate higher than the national average.

How's that drug war working out for y'all? How has arresting and imprisoning everyone ever caught with a joint or any other illicit drug kept drugs out of the hands of kids? It hasn't. That's what I have been saying for years. What it has done is destroy our criminal justice system, corrupt our police officers, turn non-violent people into violent animals, destroyed families and bloated our prison system with people who do not need to be there to the taxpayer tune of $132 million a year.

Overall, alcohol and tobacco use has de­clined among Alabama teens, but marijuana use appears to be on the rise.

See how we've managed to decrease alcohol and tobacco consumption without locking up everyone who uses alcohol and tobacco? We used education to do that. We can do the same with marijuana and other drugs.

And this has to be the most ass backwards thinking I have ever encountered.

Carissa Anthony, coordinator of the Hoo­ver Coalition Promoting a Safe and Healthy Community, said the legalization of mari­juana in some states for medical use may be breaking down psychological barriers and making marijuana appear less harmful than it is.

So, other states making forward progress on marijuana laws is responsible for teenagers in Alabama smoking more pot? I'd like her to explain why marijuana use rates among teens are LOWER in states where it has been legalized for medical purposes, but here in Alabama, where it has not yet been legalized for medical purposes, teen usage rates are HIGHER. That's funny. In the most PROHIBITIONIST state of them all marijuana use rates are higher among teens than in states where it is legal for medical use and has been decriminalized for non-medical use. The clear solution is to legalize marijuana and use education campaigns to decrease use rates....just like we have been able to do with alcohol and tobacco.

See, if we want to decrease the number of our children who use drugs, the clear solution is to legalize drugs and use education to help kids make safe, healthy choices.